Nightmare Bear
by TheSereneWolf
Summary: Silara, a Night Elf hunter, and her Frostsaber companion, Tal'ryn, accept a quest that turns out to be a little bit more than they bargained for.


Nightmare Bear

"What is this?" She whispered hesitantly.

An undulating sea of blackness stood before her. Ebon waters tossed and turned with unbridled fury as wave after wave crashed down upon the shore. Each pounding assault brought with it a tide that climbed inexorably up the shoreline, farther and farther still, until those savage incarnations of nature's wrath were beating at her very feet. Thunder boomed ominously as the wind rose up from the direction of the endless black, soon equaling then quickly surpassing its seaborne companion's ferocity. She could do nothing but stand where she was. Some unseen force wouldn't allow her to move. On top of that, something wasn't right about this water either. It clung to her pale purple skin; pooled and congealed between her toes like slime.

She began to panic, frozen in place, unable to so much as lift a finger to prevent the ocean's unrelenting stinging spray from blinding her. The water had risen above her knees by this point and every consecutive crash against her flesh robbed her of the breath to speak, let alone scream. Even if she could, it wouldn't have mattered for it was above her waist now. She could no longer call it water, because it twisted and wrapped about her form like a literal sea of billions of tiny sticky vines. She was to be consumed by the dark and could do nothing but watch, mouth agape in a silent shriek.

As the ooze violently crept up her torso toward her neck and all hope of survival had been lost in the growing cacophony, between bursts of seemingly acidic spray, she could just make out the beginnings of what appeared to be a light. Another flash of blindness and pain then the light grew bolder, brighter, taking on a brilliant emerald hue. Just before her eyes were swallowed up by the darkness, she could barely make out the silhouette of a massive winged creature-

Silara awoke with a violent start as a veritable avalanche of water and leaves fell onto her face from up above; or it would have been a start were her beast of a frostsaber not pinning her beneath his warm, furry bulk. She shook her head like a mad woman and blinked away what remained of the cold wet that interfered so brazenly with her vision. Once she could effectively make out her surroundings, excluding the as of yet still quite oblivious gargantuan feline, her heart finally allowed itself to slow somewhat. Aside from snow white and teal striped fur, a rather beautiful immediate vision of sun-touched, dew-laced leaves and a seemingly limitless forest off in the distance greeted her groggy waking orbs.

As she marveled at the simple elegance of it all, a tiny voice in the back of her head decided to make its presence known with a beguiling question. _Just what in the hell was that nightmare about?_ Sil began to ponder the implications of such a dream, which could potentially be far reaching especially in these tumultuous times, when she noticed the particular situation her body still occupied as well as the distinctive emerald color the leaves projected down at her thanks to the sun's powerful rays. _Oh, well that makes more sense then._ It was at this moment her partner decided to let out a monolithic snore that shook the immense branch they both tentatively occupied. _And that explains the rest. Now that that's settled, new prerogative: Breathing._

"For the love of Elune, Cat," exclaimed the young Huntress as she began struggling mightily to at least get an arm free of her pet's oppressive girth. It didn't help that the thin cloth garments she wore acted as excellent conductors for the big cat's smothering heat.

After a time of failing to so much as wiggle a hand free, she opted for plan B. She gathered what breath she could and bellowed. "Talryn! Get the hell off of me you lazy good for nothing scoundrel!"

Perhaps that wasn't the best idea. Talryn awoke with a terrified yelp, echoed in the way his fur stood on end as though lightning had just coursed through it. Every one of his claws extended in unison to meet whatever threat he'd half consciously envisioned that had caused such a racket and spurned him toward cognizance. Thankfully, they weren't near Sil's body and merely sank into the tree's thick bark. All of this occurred in an instant and, just as quickly, the big cat regained some measure of composure. His claws retracted, his fur laid down en masse, and his yelp transitioned smoothly into a prolonged series of apologetic chuffs. He stood up on all fours and arched his long back into a stretch as he slinked a bit farther down the branch, causing it to waver uncomfortably from side to side.

Silara exhaled, partly due to having taken in a full breath the very moment she was able and partly because of Tal's inordinate response to having been woken. A swift yet half hearted kick to his large flank served to allay her admittedly mild frustration with the beast. He responded with a side long glance, glistening cerulean eyes containing exactly one modicum of give-a-damn, and an irritated growl.

"I appreciate your concern," Sil scoffed as she gathered herself, "Not like I nearly suffocated under your sorry hide or anything."

Tal's shoulders visibly slumped and he loosed another series of apologetic chuffs. With a simultaneous 'roll' and softening of her phosphorescent eyes, she began the rather arduous task of disembarking from the ancient tree in which they'd taken refuge the previous evening. Before doing so, however, the young Night Elf again took in the glorious view laid out in front of her.

A sea of purple and green tree tops, some shorter and some taller than the one she now occupied, extended out in all directions from one horizon to the other. It was the equivalent of a rich water color painting; bright, exuberant, and brimming with eye catching hues. Through the few patches of landscape lacking in masses of obscuring foliage, she could make out everything from fields of similarly hued grass to crystalline pools of clear azure water. With that said, she still had to make every effort to ignore the less wondrous elements, such as the ever rising tendrils of thick black smoke far to the east. It was a good day so far and she didn't need a reminder of the Warsong Orcs' presence to muck it up.

She shook off that momentarily unpleasant thought and extended both arms to the sky while loosing a light yawn. For the next minute or so, she went about her morning routine of stretching, cracking, aligning, and otherwise adjusting her body for the coming day's activities. A prayer, uttered with the same monotonous tone one employs for reading a shipping manifest, dribbled out under Sil's breath.

Refreshed, she reached over to a nearby branch, upon which hung a rather sizable brown cloth sack, and nearly fell from her perch. After reorienting herself and briefly yelling aloud about her apparent lack of depth perception, Sil stood up. She took a breath and climbed agily to the adjoining tree limb whereupon she plopped down with legs crossed beneath her. She picked up the bulky bag, with some difficulty due to its weight, and began sifting through its contents.

In a few moments, she'd successfully removed several pieces of rigid leather and chain armor. The larger segments were simply draped over the branch in front of her while the smaller ones were shoved into a hollowed out portion of wood underneath them. Sil had picked this particular limb specifically for this feature and swelled with pride at the effectiveness of the decision. In the past, she'd struggled to keep those tinier parts from tumbling to the forest floor and each bore scuffs and marks as testament to her failure to do so.

Next came a pair of curved daggers, safely sheathed of course, attached to a pouch laden belt and string of canteens. Perhaps "attached" was the wrong word. "Tangled" better described the twisted jumble of items she'd pulled from the bag's dark recesses. Just how they'd all managed to wind up wrapped around one another after sitting there all night was a mystery for the ages. She sighed in abject defeat and briskly went about separating everything.

After her possessions were in a less deplorable state, Silara went about the comparably mundane task of preparing for combat. Not that she expected any conflict suited to such armament, but in Azaroth, it never hurt to assume the worst. In fact, multiplying that assumption by a thousand was an even safer bet in this world, though even that seemed insufficient at times. _Just ask Lordaeron._ Regardless, these blades, useful as they were, weren't representative of her chosen method of combat.

The bow lay at Talryn's forepaws on the massive limb where they'd both slept. It was sort of an unspoken rule between the two that the weapon would remain within either one of their reach at any given time and, prior to his having slunk over in the middle of the night for some sleepy suffo-cuddling, it had occupied the space between those fuzzy mitts of his. Tal's showy way of getting back to that spot was most likely meant to distract her from the fact that he'd temporarily forgotten his charge. _Well I didn't, and he'll be getting a talking to once we get down from here. Don't want the big baby to cower himself right off the edge, after all._

Another sigh passed her lips at the thought of having to discipline the poor boy. He was a Frostsaber, one of the more unique variants, and wasn't what one would call dense. Rather, Tal was fiercely intelligent, capable of carrying on wordless approximations of conversation via body language and little audible cues. Naturally, some of that could be in her mind, but he was still pretty bright for a four-legged friend. He understood what she said and responded as he saw fit, yet retained a certain level of deference, being that she was still technically his master and all.

_Not that he didn't take every opportunity to make it abundantly clear that he was, in fact, every bit the standard arrogant feline._ As that thought crossed her mind, Talryn made eye contact and one of his massive fangs bared just a bit more in what could only be interpreted as a very rudimentary grin. She shook her head and looked again, but it was gone by the time she'd done so. _Great, now he's messing with me._ Sil sighed once more, placing her palm on her forehead in the process, much to the furball's apparent delight as he chuffed rapidly, mimicking a chuckle. She was about to reach over and pop the big jerk on the snout when he suddenly froze, ears and the fur on his brawny back rising in unison.

"What is it?" Silara whispered hesitantly, before falling silent at the relatively close sound of clanking metal footfalls. Several of them, in fact. Scratch that; several metallic and a few softer notes were drifting on the winds. It really did serve as a polite reminder that they weren't alone in these monolithic woods...


End file.
